In the second half of my conversation with Tonya Lockyer we discuss the challenges of turning Velocity Dance Center around and reinvigorating its community reach, then move on to examining the nature of dance and art and they're relationship with broader society. And as always, a bunch of other stuff. Stuff that further cements the idea that Tonya is the bees knees.

Tonya Lockyer began dancing at the age of four, at 9 she was invited to join the National Ballet School of Canada in Toronto, after which moving to New York to study with Merce Cunningham. From there her explorations as a dancer and choreographer has taken her all over the world, eventually bringing her to Seattle where she worked with local dance institutions like On The Boards, Cornish College for the Arts and Velocity Dance Center, where she became Executive Director in 2011. After revitalizing and dramatically expanding the organization over the next three years she proposed changing the organizational structure to an executive team, with Tonya becoming Artistic Director in 2014. But these highlights don't begin to tell half of her story. Tonya is an incredibly energetic and generous soul and sitting down with her in her place in Pioneer Square was a fantastic experience, one which produced one of my favorite conversations thus far. This is part one of a two-part episode, and to be honest, I'd happily sit down with her again and again, she's the cat's pajamas.